The Future Is Wild

The Future Is Wild was a 2003 joint Animal Planet/ORF (Austria) and ZDF (Germany) co-production, which used computer-generated imagery to show the possible future of life on Earth. The seven-part television series was released with a companion book written by geologist Dougal Dixon, author of several "anthropologies/zoologies of the future" such as After Man: A Zoology of the Future, in conjunction with natural history television producer John Adams.

Based on research and interviews with dozens of scientists, this documentary was put together to show how life could evolve in the future if Homo sapiens became extinct; the Discovery Channel broadcast softened the harsh outlook by stating the human race had completely migrated from the Earth and had sent back probes to examine the progress of life on Earth. The show was played out in the form of a nature documentary. For a time in 2005, a theme park based on this program was opened in Japan.

Ecosystems

Twelve ecosystems were chosen at three points in time:-

5 million years' time

The world is in an ice age and there are giant seabirds and carnivorous bats. The ice sheets extended to as far south as Paris in the northern hemisphere and as far north as Buenos Aires in the southern hemisphere. The Amazon Rainforests dried up and opened into grasslands. The North American plains shrivelled to become cold desert. Africa collided with Europe and closed off the Mediterranean Sea again. With no water to replace it in the dry climate, the Mediterranean dried out into a giant salt flat dotted with brine lakes, as it has been in the past. Most of Europe became frozen tundra.

Denizens

Babookari, a ground-living New World monkey, descended from the present-day uakari.

Carakiller, a giant flightless bird of prey, descended from the present-day caracara.

Cryptile, a frilled lizard that inhabits salt flats and has a sticky frill.

Deathgleaner, a giant carnivorous bat.

Gannetwhale, a seal-like seabird, descended from the present-day gannet.

Gryken, a slender terrestrial mustelid, descended from the present-day pine marten.

Rattleback, an armoured rodent, descended from the present-day paca.

Desert Rattleback, related to the rattleback.

Scrofa, a rock-dwelling boar.

Shagrat, a giant marmot which lives in herds and migrates with the seasons in northern Europe.

Snowstalker, a giant saber-toothed wolverine.

Spink, a small burrowing bird, descended from the present-day quail.

100 million years' time

The world is very hot, octopuses have come onto land, and there are enormous tortoises. Much of the land became flooded by shallow seas. The surrounding land became brackish swamps. Antarctica drifted towards the tropics, and once again it became covered with trees as it had 300 million years before. Australia collided with North America and Asia, forcing up a monstrous mountain plateau higher than the modern Himalayas.

Denizens

Falconfly, a giant predatory wasp.

Grass Tree, a species of plant in the Great Plateau that is harvested by Silver Spiders to feed the Poggles.

Great Blue Windrunner, a giant four-winged bird: its legs have flight feathers on and can act as gliding surfaces.

Lurkfish, a giant big-mouthed electric fish.

Ocean Phantom, a giant jellyfish.

Poggle, the last mammal. Ever

Reef Glider, a swimming sea slug.

Roachcutter, a swift jungle bird.

Silver Spider, a large colonial spider.

Spindle Trooper, a giant sea spider. They live in Ocean Phantoms, which they defend against enemies.

Spitfire Bird, a species of flutterbird which spits corrosive liquid.

False Spitfire Bird, a species of bird that resembles the Spitfire Bird, but is harmless.

Spitfire Beetle, a cooperative predatory beetle which preys on Spitfire Birds.

Spitfire Tree, a flowering tree that makes two chemicals collected by the Spitfire Birds, which in the process pollinates the tree.

Swampus, a terrestrial octopus.

Toraton, a giant tortoise, grows to 120 tons.

200 million years' time

The world is recovering from a mass extinction caused by a flood basalt eruption, much larger than the one that created the Siberian Traps. Fish have taken to the skies, squid to the forests and the world's largest ever desert is filled with strange worms and insects. All the continents have collided into one another and fused into a single supercontinent, a second Pangaea. Unlike the cephalopods of 100 million years ago, such as the Swampus, which were amphibious, the cephalopods this day, such as the megasquid, no longer have to return to the water to live.

Denizens

Bumblebeetle, a flying insect which lives and breeds inside the carcasses of dead Flish.

Deathbottle, a carnivorous plant, residing in the Rainshadow Desert.

Desert Hopper, a hopping snail with a modified single foot.

Forest Flish, a bird-like fish that no longer lives in the oceans, but instead flies like birds.

Flish, another type of Flish that relies on the ocean more than the Forest Flish.

Garden Worm, an algae-filled worm that feeds only on sunlight.

Megasquid, an elephant-sized omnivorous terrestrial squid. Its 8 arms have evolved into walking legs like an elephant's. It uses its two long tentacles for feeding.

Rainbow squid, a giant chameleonic squid.

Sharkopath, a bioluminescent pack-hunting shark.

Silverswimmer, fish-sized neotenous crustaceans.

Slickribbon, a cave-dwelling predatory worm.

Squibbon, a terrestrial tree-swinging squid. Relatively intelligent; the likeliest ancestor for future sapient life.

Terabyte, a colonial termite that has become highly specialized.

Gloomworm, a primitive bacteria-eating worm.

Episode List

Although there are presumably many thousands of different species around at each point in the future, each episode generally focuses on just one food chain.

1. Welcome to the Future (a brief skim over the coming episodes)
2. Return of the Ice (5 million years time, in the new frozen wastes of Europe)
3. The Vanished Sea (5 million years time, in the Mediterranean salt desert)
4. Prairies of Amazonia (5 million years time, in the grasslands where the Amazon Rainforest once existed)
5. Cold Kansas Desert (5 million years time, in North America)
6. Waterland (100 million years time, in the swamps of Bengal)
7. Flooded World (100 million years time, in the shallow seas)
8. Tropical Antarctica (100 million years time, in an Antarctica which is now on the equator)
9. The Great Plateau (100 million years time, in an area that was once Tibet)
10. The Endless Desert (200 million years time, in the vast desert of central Pangaea)
11. The Global Ocean (200 million years time, in, obviously, the ocean of the world)
12. Graveyard Desert (200 million years time, in a rainshadow desert)
13. The Tentacled Forest (200 million years time, in the rainforest)

DVD product information

The series was released on three DVDs. The first DVD in the series includes episodes 1-5, the second includes episodes 6-9, and the third includes episodes 10-13. The three DVDs have also been released together as a set.

Both the DVD singles and the 3-DVD set are available for DVD regions one and two. Although the singles are available for region four, the 3-DVD set is not. Magna Pacific, the company contracted to market the Future is Wild series to Australasia, originally planned to release the 3-DVD set in May. When asked in December 2005, the Executive Director of Magna Pacific stated, "We have this scheduled for a May release." However, when asked again in August 2006, the National Marketing Manager of Magna Pacific announced, "Unfortunately the 3-DVD set of Future is Wild has been withdrawn from release, the singles will continue to be available but plans for the release of the 3-DVD set have been placed on hold with no future date set at this stage."

Scientists

Scientists involved in the project

• R McNeill Alexander, zoologist
• Leticia Aviles, evolutionary biologist
• Phillip Currie, paleontologist and paleoornithologist (the study of prehistoric birds)
• Dougal Dixon, geologist
• Richard Fortey, paleontologist
• William Gilly, cell biologist, developmental biologist, and marine biologist
• Stephen Harris, mammalogist
• Kurt M. Kotrschal, zoologist
• Mike Linley, herpetologist
• Roy Livermore, palaeogeographer
• R. McNeill Alexander, specialist in biomechanics
• Karl J. Niklas, botanist
• Stephen Palumbi, marine biologist
• Jeremy Rayner, zoologist
• Stephen Sparks, geologist
• Bruce H. Tiffney, palaeobotanist
• Paul Valdes, paleoclimatologist

Children's Series

In October 2007 Discovery Kids made a children's version of the show. Featuring teenagers who study to earth and furturistic creatures. the cartoon is made in CGI animation. Set for 26 episodes. The cartoon was developed by Nelvana Animation, and was directed by Mike Fallows. Characters and creatures were designed by Brett Jubinville.

See also

• List of The Future Is Wild species
• Category:The Future Is Wild episodes
• Future Evolution
• Human extinction

External links

• The Future Is Wild at the Internet Movie Database

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